MAE Center Participates in Army Corp of Engineers Disaster Planning Workshop

Amr Elnashai, Liang Chang, and Timothy Gress participated in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers/FEMA Remedial Action Program (RAP) Workshop on December 8 -9, 2009 in Dallas, TX. The RAP Workshop is held each year to review and update the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE)/FEMA Remedial Action Plan for improving USACE support to FEMA under the National Response Framework. The RAP Workshops include breakout sessions that provide USACE, FEMA and state partners with a forum for working together to develop courses of action for addressing intergovernmental disaster response and recovery issues.

The MAE Center was asked to participate in the Catastrophic Planning breakout sessions that were held both days of the workshop. On December 8, Amr Elnashai gave a presentation on the work that the Center has conducted for FEMA’s New Madrid Catastrophic Planning Initiative. Dr. Elnashai presented a summary of the Phase I and Phase II research efforts. Advanced copies of the Phase II report, Impact of New Madrid Seismic Zone Earthquakes on the Central USA, MAE Center Report No. 09-03, were distributed to USACE, Coast Guard, and FEMA personnel attending the breakout session.

During the breakout, USACE representative and breakout session leader Richard Howley, acknowledged that USACE is using the Center’s Phase I report as a resource to assist in the development of their New Madrid earthquake response plans. Mr. Howley indicated that USACE will update their plans based on the results described in the Phase II report.

 

 

More News